"Good night, Chief. Serving the best food like always."
"See you again." Chief smiled politely while watching the final customer left the cafe. He looked at the wall clock, checking to see the time.
"Hmm..." He picked up the dirty dishes left on the table, cleaning the dirty dishes and tables while listening to the music played from the jukebox. He was enjoying the cleaning until the bell at the front door rang. Three men in black, wearing black suits and glasses walked into the shop.
"Sorry boys. We're closing." Before Chief could move to the front, one of them grabbed his collar and pushed towards the coffee rack.
"Hey, what are you..." Chief tried to ask him but was immediately interrupted by the man with a fierce look. He stared at Chief and spoke fiercely, "Where is Ren Yato?"
Chief widened his eyes after hearing that name. The fierce-looking man nodded with other men in blac and went back to the kitchen. Judged by it, the man who grabbed him was probably the leader in the team. As for the reason from which organization , he had some clues in mind.
"Where is he!?" The man who grabbed the owner's collar even tighter and pushed him again. The huge impact onto the racks and few coffee jars dropped on the floor and crashed.
"Hey! Those are expensive! " The fierce-looking man pulled Chief forwards, grabbing his head and slammed him on the table. "Forget about those beans. Tell us where Ren Yato is. You know where to find him!"
"Talking about manners. Didn't your parents tell you to say please before asking?" For his consequence of refusing to answer, the owner's head was slammed on the table. The fierce-looking man kept slamming Chief's head, punching on his stomach and face, forcing him to talk. Chief can only withstand the beating. A left punch on his stomach and right punch to his face. The nose and mouth started to bleed, having difficulty catching a breath.
A few minutes of interrogation, the others returned to the front and reported, "No sign of Ren Yato." The other continued, "Neither does 'that' material."
"Is that so…" The fierce man stopped punching and released Chief. Chief slowly sat on a chair, wiping away the nosebleed.
"What should we do?" Chief looked at them gathered together, having a private discussion. Whatever they discussed, he doubted this will ever end well.
The men nodded each other, having some kind of agreement during the discussion. They started reaching for their coat and pulled out a handgun equipped with a suppressor.
Great. Chief thought inside while watching them pull out something he should have expected. They pointed to the beaten shop owner with guns. The fierce once again asking.
"Last chance. Tell us where to find Ren Yato? Or you want to end up taking bullets?" They were holding their fingertips on the trigger, ready to pull it if Chief made any sudden move or refused. Either way, they will end up killing him. Chief didn't show any fear or any emotion while men were pointing guns at him. Instead, he widened his arms and exposed his chest. They were unable to understand the motivation behind his trick. Could he be asking for mercy? Or...
"I'll take the bullets please." Chief spoke calmly and smirked. The men in black were again unable to understand his motive. The fierce-looking man walked forward and pointed the gun onto Chief's forehead.
"Listen, just tell us where to find Ren Yato, and you are free to go. It's that simple." Chief looked at something behind the man. Thinking about something other than men threatened him.
How much it cost to recover my coffee beans and racks. Hope the insurance could've covered those . Chief looked at him and replied, "Nope."
"Too bad." The fierce-looking man made his first shot. Bullets penetrated Chief's skull, the bullet went out behind his head and so did the blood, sprinkling arond the floor and on the wall.
The others fired at Chief brutally, not giving him a chance to survive. More blood spilled out of his body and all over the ground. Bullets hole and blood all over his corpse, nobody will survive these shots. They confirmed there's no sign of life and walked towards the front door.
"What a waste of time. Called HQ to clean up this mess." The fierce-looking man blamed the dead owner for wasting their time. If only he was not stubborn and talked, he would probably have a chance to live. It's a shame that this city is gonna have one less cafe.
"Leaving so soon?" An unexpected voice called and shocked them. They widened their eyes and raised up their guns, looking a dead man slowly raised from the ground.
"What the hell…" the fierce-looking dropped his jaw, unable to believe what he and his colleague saw. A man who was shot many times and one into his skull. Yet, he stood up and acted like nothing happened. He looked closely and watched as the bullet holes on his body were gone.
"Those are my favorite shirts. Now I have to get a new one." Chief tried to mop away the blood dyed on his shirt and holes on it. The men were shocking until they noticed Chief gave them a stare. A stare that could not describe. It felt like that stare could kill them instantly and deadly aura appeared behind the owner's back.
"F...fire!" They were about to shoot him again but this time, they couldn't pull the trigger. To be precise, they can't even move a muscle. Chief slowly walking, the aura behind him got stronger while he walked towards them.
Chief walked past them and approached the front door. He flipped over the sign on the door to CLOSE. At this closer distance between him and themen, they could struck him but they couldn't. Their bodies won't listen the command from the mind, but their instincts told them not to make a dumb move to him.
"Well, thanks to your 'effort'. My shop's a mess. I have no problem with those since my insurance would cover these." Chief continued but with different from his normal tones, "I'm gonna make sure you all get the lesson this whole night…" The men started panicking, watching something dark surrounded Chief as his eyes glowed crimson red.
"YOU DO NOT FUCK WITH THE DEVIL."
That night, it will be the most memorable lesson from those men.
At the helicopter
"Damn it!" The angry captain threw away his cell phone while the helicopter was touching down onto the helipad. Not only he couldn't find that intruder, but also lost contact with the search team. Is that anything he couldn't wish recently?
Now, he and his team were landing on an island owned by DEM. He heard rumours about this island. DEM ran many secret projects around and carried ugly experiments that cannot leak to the public. Normally, only researchers here or operators trusted by Westcott can visit this place. But to think of he has this kind of 'honour' to visit.
"Welcome to Neryl, captain." Two operators saluted to the captain. Captain also did the same to them.
"Right this way." They quickly guided the captain towards an entrance. They walked into an elevator, going to the very bottom of the base.
While the elevator reached the bottom, the captain kept thinking about the odds. He recalled he had no permission to this place until he received a call this morning. Right after he received that intruder's details from the intel team.
Earlier that day
"Sir! Good news!" A soldier came into the captain's room. The captain was smoking his cigarette and looked at his man.
"Speak." The captain spoke tiredly.
"We got the info of the intruder."
While the captain heard the 'intruder' words, he smoked the cigarette on his hand deeply, letting out a huge smoke out of his mouth.
"Finally, who was it?"
The soldier slowly walked towards the desk and put all the info about the intruder on it. The info not only about Ren Yato's info, but also a picture of Chief.
"So, he is the one who destroyed Visage MK 3." The captain read the intel angrily, remembering what he had done for the past week.
"Yes, sir. His name is Ren Yato, one of the students at Raizen High School. He also worked as a mercenary at Shadow Cafe."
"Shadow cafe?"
"Yes. The owner of the coffee shop was his broker. Intel said he can get any info for those willing to pay the price. And also provided jobs for those willing to take."
"Hmm… does he have any closer friends?" The captain asked the soldier, having an idea inside his mind.
"No, sir. The only relative is the man in this picture." The soldier pointed at the Chief profile. The captain seemed to conclude his mind and stood up.
"Good, assign a team to search for Ren Yato. Find him at all cost. Burned down his house, lead him to the only place he could go."
The soldier understood what his captain tried to do, but for the confirmation, he questioned the excited captain.
"You mean, guide him to the Shadow cafe?"
"Yes, if his only shelter was gone, the only place he could stay is there. Then, we called the search team and captured him. Remember, I want him alive!"
"But what about the owner?"
"Nah, screw him. Threatening him will do the trick. Kill him on sight if he shows any resistance. An ordinary person will be afraid of death and pretend nothing happened. Especially those greedy brokers."
While the soldier was listening to the plan, the captain stared at him and shouted, "What are you waiting for? Christmas Eve? Hussle the fuck up!"
The soldier quickly saluted and left the room, leaving the captain kept reading the info on the table. He kept flipping pages by pages, all the secrets about Ren Yato recorded in a thick documentation. But there's one thing he was curious about.
"To think of a kid able to cause this, I must say I'm impressed. But, not for long. I will personally teaching you to show respect and consequences of fucking with me." He angried, almost tearing papers. He switched to another document, checking on Chief profile. Compared to Ren Yato, it was lighter, and less info about this man.
"Guess this broker ain't easy to deal with." He flipped over Chief's profile. The only thing on the paper are the place he ran, his current job, where is he last location. Nothing specific about his birth, family, friends, or any of his past. The only person he knew is Ren Yato. He was also the instructor of Ren Yato.
"Interesting…" he kept flipping until the last page, he frowned, unable to find the most important info in the profile - A name. He knew this 'Chief' was probably a nickname or fake. But he kept searching and none of it recorded in the document. His six senses told him this middle age man ain't a simple broker and cafe owner.
Back to present
"Ding…" the elevator finally reached the destination, the captain walked out and was stunned by the view in his front. A massive experiment tube with countless wires on the top. Many operators are busy doing each of their works. Some of them are controlling computers, some of them are adjusting the equipment linked to the experiment tube, some of them are discussing the status of it.
While he was still stunned by the massive operation, a young man with white collar walked towards him.
"Welcome, captain." He greeted politely. The captain looked at the man, a pair of black frame glasses, middle long haircut with color of black and brown iris in his eyes.
"You are…"
"I'm Kei Watanabe. The professor who led this experiment." The captain once again was stunned by the words from this man. A professor? This man was the one in charge. He thought it would be someone old like him but to think of a man looked 20 had the ability to lead the operation. Must be a genius.
"You are the one in charge? You look… young."
The professor chuckled, "People always said that to me. I'm almost 40 actually."
"Okay…" Well, Guess those asian people looked younger than their age kinda talk is true. No offense of course.
"Sorry, we don't come here for small talk. You called me here for 'that' reason." The captain cut into the chase, trying to understand the true reason why he was here.
"If I remember correctly, your base was attacked last week." The captain was shocked, but the professor kept walking forwards to the experiment tube. He continued, "And I know your greatest work - Visage MK 3 was destroyed by an intruder who was a mere kid."
"What are you trying to say?" The captain was annoyed as he was tired of hearing his failure again. He tried to pat on the professor's shoulder. The professor looked at him, and remained his polite smile.
"What if I tell you, I could 'sponsor' you an alternative?"
"Huh?"
The young professor snapped his finger, signaling his team to do something. Operators started to operate their devices in their section. The experiment tube started showing the content inside it. The captain widened his eyes as he watched an unknown creature was contained.
The appearance left him in shock, unable to describe what is he looking at right now. Those designs, those…looks, it's definitely not the living thing from this planet.
"Ain't she beautiful?" The professor was excited, praising the creature inside the tube. There's no sign of disgusting or hateful written on his face.
"What… is that thing?" The captain tried to point at it but he was stopped by the professor. Kei hold down the captain's hand and put his finger on his lip.
"Now..." He looked at operators behind him. They are currently waiting for orders, trying to 'boot' the sleeping creature.
"Hit it."
The electricity powered up and passed through the complicated wires. The electric then go to the experiment tube, charging up the creature inside.
? Pov
Where am I?
How long am I asleep?
Who are they?
The creature slowly opened its eyes, looking straight at the professor and the captain. But it cannot look around due to the head being locked by the equipment at its neck. He can't even move the arms and the legs. All it felt are the coldness of the fluid and pipes sticked behind the back.
Back to the lab
"Now, did you bring me the picture?"
"It's here. What are you…"
"Thank you." Kei immediately snatched the image that was on the captain's hand. He stared at the boy in the image and mumbled, "Ain't that a handsome little boy?"
"Hey, what are you gonna…" Kei ignored the question, approached near the surface of the tube. He knocked at the tube, trying to get the creature's attention.
Why am I in this?
"Rinse and shine, sweet heart."
She heard a voice called for her. She looked at the professor who was currently holding a picture. The professor showed the image to her, smashing the tube with that picture on his hand.
"Remember this guy?" He asked.
! The creature was shocked inside. The equipment detected her heart rate were increasing. The
smirked as he succeeded to trigger her emotion.
This boy! I knew him! I WILL KILL HIM! KILL!
The creature attempted to struggle, trying to escape the equipment that locked him up. Rather of the powerless, it felt like it's the equipment was designed to hold her off. Even so, she kept trying and trying, unable to contain the rage inside her.
"Woah, look at you. You sure got strong spirit in your heart." The professor was impressed by the creature in front of him. The captain finally got his attention and asked, "What is thing gonna do with Ren Yato?"
"Oh, didn't I tell you? I'm running a biological weapon experiment called Demon Modification. But I need a test subject, so I noticed you want to find this boy and this boy killed this demon before. So, I resurrected her as the stronger version…"
"Hold up. Demon? Experiment? What are you trying to say?" The captain was unable to follow the professor's explanation. Demon? He heard of it, a low life creature came out from nowhere just like Spirit. But that's beyond their duty already. An experiment about strengthening the demon, that's the first he heard about it.
"Simple, we hired her to hunt down this boy."
"But you can't…" The captain widened his eyes and tried to argue but he was again interrupted by the professor.
"I already got the approval from the top, so no worries." He posed an 'Okay' sign, showing his plan was approved and ready to go.
"So why are you calling me here?" Chief shouted. Kei sighed and looked at him.
"You wanted redemption, don't you?"
"Huh?"
"If the test field was a success, not only I can gain the combat data, but also help you to get rid of the mistake you made last week. And maybe… just maybe, you get a promotion, sitting at the higher class of room and enjoy the promotion life."
"But why me?" The captain asked, wanting to know the reason for picking him. They could find any test subject to test this 'thing'.
"What, you are not happy?" The professsor asked curiously.
"No, but you can't just put it in the middle of the city! If the public found out what we did, we are fucked."
"It's Tengu City, right? We can fake a spacequake and they will retreat to the basement. Plus…"
He walked past and patted the captain's shoulder. The professor looked at the confused captain and smirked.
"You will make your family proud if this is a success."
"!" The professor walked away, ordering his men to continue the procedure. Leaving the captain stared down and held tight his fist. He then looked at the creature inside the tube. He made his mind and called the professor.
"Alright, whatever you are doing. I'm in."